The second-generation ForTwo is no longer quite as compact after it is forced to size up to European and US crash regulations. By JEZ SPINKS.

Smart's baby car told to grow up

Smart fears that future safety regulations could jeopardize its company’s unique selling point after its ultra-compact ForTwo model was forced to increase in size for both European and US markets.

The second-generation version of the world’s smallest conventionally engined production car last week launched in Madrid, Spain, revealing a body that’s 200mm longer (2695mm) than the original model.

Most of the increased length results from extended front and rear overhangs that allow the ForTwo to comply with both upcoming 2008 European pedestrian regulations and existing US rear-impact crash laws.

Anders-Sundt Jensen, Smart’s vice-president for marketing and sales, admitted the company would have preferred to leave the original dimensions untouched for a car that sells on its ability to squeeze into the narrowest of parking spaces.

“Our target was not to make the ForTwo longer,” says Jensen, “but we were forced to make it bigger to fulfill safety regulations for both Europe and the US.”

“The authorities have from time to time surprised us negatively [in terms of regulation changes], and sometimes with a very short response time.

“I hope that there will be not more regulations coming up forcing us to build the [third-generation ForTwo] bigger, because then we will have to find other technologies at least to safeguard things such as the car’s tiny turning circle, its very easy access to limited parking spaces, etc. If the ForTwo grows much bigger, these advantages are definitely gone.”

“Let us be clear that all types of crash-testing regulations are compromises,” says Jensen. “If we look at NCAP, which has become a kind of quality signature, a kind of standard, you have to fulfill to be in the [European] market, that’s just one testing methodology.

“If you really want to build safe cars you have to do more than that. You have to evaluate your accident statistics [to develop real-world crash protection].

“We have a huge advantage of being part of the Mercedes car group because accident statistics used as a core development of all Mercedes passenger vehicles is also being used for development of Smart cars.

Jensen is surprised, too, that European standards are not sufficient for America.

“We cannot always discuss whether the European cars, which is at least in the eyes of Europeans safer and generally more environmentally friendly, cannot [compete] with US products,” says Jensen.

“But if you’re not fulfilling the US regulations you’re not allowed to market and sell your car in the US. Whether or not it’s a marketing or sales issue, this is something that has to be discussed and solved in Washington. Perhaps the word is called ‘protection’ but that is something we don’t like to use so much when talking with the American authorities.”

A corresponding, 55mm increase in the new ForTwo’s wheelbase – as well as 44mm added to the width – can only be a positive, though, liberating more interior shoulder, leg and hip room for a U.S market whose customers are traditionally larger than their European counterparts.

Smart says the ForTwo will be marketed in key American cities such as New York and Los Angeles where traffic congestion and parking problems are as much an issue as in the European capitals of Rome, London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid where the ForTwo is most popular.

Not surprisingly, Australia’s two most populous cities – Sydney and Melbourne – record the best local sales for the micro-sized two-door, accounting for 76 per cent of all Smart sales locally.The ForTwo’s relatively solid progress in Australia – 2006 sales of 533 were double that of 2004, its first full year on sale here – was not, however, used as a benchmark for the car’s US introduction, despite both markets sharing a traditional, if changing, affinity with larger cars.

A successful trial of the current ForTwo in America’s neighbour country, Canada, provided the necessary indications for the ForTwo’s potential in the US market.

Jensen says he is not surprised by the ForTwo’s sales performance in Australia despite our city roads being relatively unclogged when compared with Europe.

“Australians first of all are very European thinking,” says Jensen, “even though if you go back many years Australia was very far away. But today it’s not so far away. Australians travel, they travel to Europe, they see European concepts, and the majority of cars sold in Australia you find an enormous mixture between Japanese-style cars, European-style cars, and American cars.”

Smart Australia expects sales of the new ForTwo, when it goes on sale in September/October, to build on the sales growth achieved since the brand launched here in June 2003.

The ForTwo – again available as either Coupe or Cabrio – follows BMW’s second-generation Mini in looking only subtly different to its predecessor despite the aforementioned dimension increases.

Smart says that while the ForTwo’s diminutive size restricts freedom for the designers, the company didn’t want to radically change a design that had become a familiar part of the urban environment.

There are plenty of new visual cues, however, when you take a longer look. The bonnet is noticeably higher and rounder (to meet 2008 pedestrian safety regulations), conventionally shaped projector headlamps contribute to a more mature overall look, while at the rear each side features two rather than three tail-lights.The tridion safety cell – which Smart describes as protecting occupants like a hard shell around a nut – continues, as does electronic stability control as standard.

Four new three-cylinder engines are offered in Europe, but Australia is expected to pass up the naturally aspirated 1.0-litres (45kW and 52kW), and the 33kW 0.8-litre diesel and again take only the top-specification turbocharged version, which delivers 62kW of power.

The 17kW increase from the current turbo ForTwo is aided mainly by a larger engine that expands from 0.7 litres to 1.0, and also benefits from four valves per cylinder instead of the old engine’s two.

All engines are teamed with an all-new five-speed transmission that replaces the previous six-speed gearbox criticised for its jerky shifts.As before, however, the driver has the option of choosing either fully automated mode or the manual-tipshift function.

The new ForTwo, as with the original model, boasts impressive fuel consumption and emissions figures thanks to its small size and its small engines.

The combined European consumption figure for the three 1.0-litre petrol engines ranges from 4.7 to 4.9 litres per 100 kilometres, and CO2 emissions between 112 and 116 grams per kilometer. The diesel engine improves on those figures with 3.4L/100km and 90g/km respectively. These are near-identical to the previous model’s figures but the new Coupe and Cabrio are up to 60kg heavier.

Smart wouldn’t go as far to say that the ForTwo had become almost an ethical choice for car buyers, but Jensen said there was no doubt climate-change concerns would indirectly help Smart sales.

“There’s no doubt that With our program we have the only product that fulfills all requirements coming from the Kyoto protocol, we also have today with consumption, and also the CO2 measured in gram per kilometer, we have the most environmentally friendly product you can buy on the planet.”